An extremely timely article from Slate regarding the complexities of stigma and health when it comes to fatness. Turns out there is ample evidence (pun intended) that stigmatizing a population may lead to the poorer health outcomes, co-morbidity and mortality associated with the so-called disease of "obesity." Can you say spurious? I know that you can. (HINT: stigma is the alcohol, fat is the water)

From the Slate Article:

If anti-fat bias can affect our bodies, then it's worth considering how an all-out war on obesity plays out in terms of public health. When we reach out to poor communities and educate them about the risks of being overweight, we are, in effect, exporting the weight stigma that happens to be most prevalent among rich, white people. Indeed, Rebecca Puhl says the reported prevalence of weight discrimination has increased by two-thirds since the mid-1990s, while media coverage of the "obesity epidemic" has quintupled over roughly the same interval. (Meanwhile, the U.S. diet industry has just about doubled its annual revenues—to nearly $60 billion.)

The bottomline is what many of us have been saying all along. Public Health Policy should be promoting HEALTH AT EVERY SIZE not a war on 2/3 of our population!